National Institute of Health Study Finds Teen Marijuana Use Not Increasing Post-Legalization

According to the recently released University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey,self-reported marijuana use by adolescents hasn’t increased in recent years despite the majority of states legalizing it for either medical or adult use.

The study was commissioned by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, which is a part of the National Institutes of Health.

Summarizing the findings in a press release, the agency acknowledged: “Rates of marijuana use by teens have been of great interest to researchers over the past decade, given major social and legislative shifts around the drug; it is now legal for adult recreational use in 10 states plus the District of Columbia, and it is available medicinally in many more. Fortunately, even as teens’ attitudes toward marijuana’s harms continue to relax, they are not showing corresponding increases in marijuana use.”

Marijuana use prevalence by young people did not change significantly between 2017 and 2018, the survey reported.